Note that I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for my review. I was immediately attracted to this book because it was compared to Rebecca, and I guess that came about because Pippits is the house Betty Stash loved so much, but sadly, it comes nowhere near Manderley..Betty often compares herself with "Beloveds"--her favored younger sister, her husband's girlfriend, the neighbors--anyone with a pleasant life who seems to be favored by others. And who wouldn't favor others to the unhappy Betty, particularly as she gives away her life to bitterness, especially after she learns her mother has left Pippits to sister Gloria and her husband, a man Betty once pictured for herself. Betty's growing psychosis, helped along with loads of alcohol,destroys the life she once had, leading to sometimes unbelievable attempts, some successful, some not, to destroy the lives of others. Sadly, it isn't only Betty who is unpleasant; because she hates everyone, her view of every other character is poisoned, and there isn't a single one I cared about. While the writing is solid, the story becomes downright unpleasant, and toward the end I had to force myself to finish. I found the conclusion disappointing and not really believable. I'd give the author another go, but The Beloveds, while exactly the kind of book I usually enjoy, left me disappointed.

A disturbing and rotten tale of two sisters


Betty Stash knows she isn’t a beloved, but honestly she doesn’t even care (doesn’t care about anything really) just the house. Her sister Gloria on the other hand is a charmer, a beloved. Betty lives a hard live, she has to fight for anything type of attention since the lovely Gloria came into the picture. Everything Gloria has Betty believes it should have been hers so the shock comes when Gloria is left the family mansion but Betty isnt letting this one go so easily. Betty talks to the "House" as if it is an actual person, which makes her believe the house chose her so therefore it should be hers. Then when Betty's marriage starts to crumble she can't fathom losing that too even though maybe she doesn’t love him anymore but that doesn’t matter. This starts to go dark makes you wonderis Betty is slowly coming undone?


Betty is always the victim and any form of goodness/happiness is just fairy tale make believe crap. LOL! So beware it gets twisted.

I really enjoyed this novel. The writing style was beautiful and elegant. The characters were a perfect balance of good vs. evil.

Thanks NetGalley!!

Twisted! That is the only word I feel describes the main character, Betty. From the very beginning of the book I was drawn in. I loved reading the story from Betty's perspective. Her desire to rid herself of her sister and take over as rightful heir to the family home just kept me engrossed in the book. I found it hard to put down and thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Quite an interesting story. The older sister’s feelings become very real and seem to overtake her. Who hasn’t felt a bit of that in their life? Not being the beloved one can be so hard on a person. The writing is very well done and the characters are very believable.. I will definitely be recommending this book!

I love a story with a great villain!  The best sort of villain is one you see a speck of humanity in--the part of us that lives in the dark as we know it is unsuitable for fostering human connection and happiness.  All humans feel envy, jealous, and are sensitive to perceived injustices.

Our protagonist, Betty, is relatable in this way--she thinks the awful things we all think but don't admit and harbors envy to an extent no one would ever confess.  Beyond that, she's ready to go to extraordinary lengths to remedy any perceived slights and injustices.  Spending time in her mind is an absolutely fascinating glimpse of a very disturbed, but compelling, individual.  

I recommend this book to anyone that enjoys a superbly written deep dive into the dark side of the human psyche.

Family drama is alive and kicking in every family you encounter. What isn't in every family is the desire to kill your sibling because your family house is telling you it should be rightfully yours. Here we have two sisters who lose their mother. A mother who clearly favors one over the other. And although it is widely known the house would be most loved by one, the mother, in her will, leaves it to the other sister. In most families, you would hold a grudge and move on with your life. Here, Maureen Lindley has warped the family dynamic to the point of thoughts of poison and murder. Does she actually accomplish it is a quite wild journey where the reader's emotions will be sent up and down.

Overall I enjoyed this book. I'm glad that writers are starting to turn their attention to different types of personality disordered individuals and bringing their issues to light. This was an interesting read from the viewpoint of one of those types of people. It was interesting and disturbing to see things through her eyes and watch how she justified the things she did. I would recommend this book overall as it had an interesting storyline and people need to be more aware of these types of people and the way they think through things and rationalize their behaviors. I was provided an ARC by NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

The beloveds. Oh how wonderful it would be to be a perfect, beautiful, rich and CRAZY Beloved.  Betty Stash has not been so fortunate (she thinks, at first) to be a Beloved. Her younger sister, the ever beautiful Gloria is though. When Betty is unexpectedly left the Beloved estate, and everything Gloria feels is automatically rightfully hers, things turn sour. Really sour. Gloria will do everything she needs to to get what she believes is hers. But at what point will she stop at? The book The Beloveds is a dark, gripping and twisted novel.  It will make you need to know what happens, and it will grip you. I will definitely recommend this book to fellow book lovers and on my IG to my book followers! Very well written! First time reading from this author, I will be looking for more of her writing :)

There aren’t many books that give me chills right from the start. This is one of them. The dynamics between Betty and Gloria are tense as only sisters will understand, but Lindley takes the tension to new levels of crazy by immersing the reader completely into Betty’s psyche. The skill with which Lindley envelops the reader in that crazy desperation is laudable and puts this book on the same level as Rebecca. So much fodder for book discussions here, as well as a totally gripping story. Well-recommended.

Elizabeth/Betty/Lizzie Stash is crazy.  Really psychotic.  She is in love with the house she grew up in, Pipits.  When her mother dies, Pipits is left to her sister, a “beloved.”  Betty sets out to take back what she feels is rightfully hers.  The first half of the book, Betty is annoying.  She is narcissistic.  She feels bad for herself and feels nothing is ever given to her or works out for her as it does all Beloveds.  And yes, I kept wanting her to get help.  I mean, she thinks the house speaks to her!  The last half of the book was more intense.  Betty went all out insane.  I definitely enjoyed the last half of the book more than the first half.  

I had a hard time rating this book. I just couldn’t stand Betty.  Ultimately, I had to go with 4 stars.  The author is too good- I was thrown into the head of this deranged woman and couldn’t resist seeing what happened to her and all of the Beloveds.  

Thanks to Netgalley and Gallery Books for the digital advanced copy to read and review!

Review goes live on the blog on March 30 and will show up on Goodreads sometime later.

In a Flutter: Soooo twisted!
Fluttering Thoughts:
Worldbuilding: Cold-Upton and London, UK setting.
Characters: Elizabeth seems to be a psychopath, imo. I was horrified of the thing about Gloria’s kitten, in the beginning. Yet she exerts a creeping sort of charm, a magnetism I can’t explain and don’t like – charismatic psychopath. As the story goes on I found her less and less charismatic, and more and more insane. I guess that’s the thing with psychos: they seem interesting and mysterious from some distance, but horrifying if you’re privy to their real thoughts.
Plot: The story follow Elizabeth through a descent into homicidal madness. It’s very tense and there’s a sense of disjointed reality as we experience it through her filter. The ending was very fun and full of possibilities though at the same time it left me with a clear sense of what is going to happen from there on.
Writing: First person, past tense narrative, Elizabeth’s POV. I enjoyed her cruel and spiteful voice with dry and dark sprinkles of humor in the beginning of the story, though it got darker and less enjoyable as the story progresses. I didn’t like the jumping about of the timeline – I’m never a fan of flashbacks.
Curb Appeal: Cool cover, hooking blurb – impulsive buy material for my psychological thriller moods (of which I have more and more, lately, lol).

I recommend The Beloveds to fans of chilling stories about killers from their POVs. It’s a cozy sort of thriller that will make you think twice about how you behave with your relatives and neighbors, lol.

The Beloveds has me stumped. I wanted to love it, I should have loved it (female psychopathic narrator? Come on). I loved some parts and really, really didn’t love others. So! I haven’t done a pro/con list in some time, here we go.

Pros:

The Writing
I have to say I was drawn in by The Beloveds immediately. Sister stories of all kinds intrigue me, (is there a more complex relationship dynamic than that of one between sisters?) and the book opens immediately with Elizabeth confessing that she has hated her sister from childhood on. That, to me, is compelling. The writing feels almost antiquated, but not in an unpleasant way. I could easily see it happening any time within the last fifty years, which makes the novel feel timeless. It is clever, very witty and sharp. The writing is probably what kept me intrigued through my cons.

Elizabeth/Betty/Lizzie
I am SO here for female psychopathic narrators. With men there seems to always be a sexual element to insanity that I simply cannot get behind. Elizabeth is brilliant, maniacal, manipulative, and completely unaware of how crazy she is. I adore it. I adore her. I can’t help it. She’s COMPLETELY unlikable, so don’t confuse my meaning, but I cannot help rooting for her even when she’s planning murders because she is so damn believable. THAT’S what I need from a narrator. They can be a heinous individual, but I need to believe in their causes and somehow root for them. And this accomplishes that for me. If you need a narrator you can love, Elizabeth is not for you. But I bet she’ll keep your interest.

The Art Gallery
(I almost wrote “Art Dealership”? It’s eleven at night. I’m tired.) For a portion of the book, Elizabeth works at an art gallery with her husband. The way she speaks about art is absolutely gorgeous. I’m a painter and art history nerd, so I may be partial. But this was also part of what makes Elizabeth’s love for her childhood home so believable. She doesn’t love people, doesn’t appreciate them. She loves and appreciates beauty, and it’s so apparent in how she speaks about art.

The House
Pipits! The House, called Pipits, is something really interesting. Elizabeth speaks about Pipits like it’s a lover. Like she’s in love. That sounds crazy but it works for her. The house speaks to her, she talks often about its voice. The house agrees with her, is occasionally disappointed in her. Pipits has personality.


Cons:

The Pacing
About 100 pages in, things nearly come to a halt. From this point, all the way to the end, for me, the book crawls and drags. Many, many pages of “I hate them, they’re in my house, I should be in my house, I must get them out of my house,” to then get to a couple pages of action, and back to the inner monologue. Again, I love the writing. I find Elizabeth’s inner monologue fascinating. Absolutely not for this much of the story, though. The Beloveds takes place over many years, and boy does it feel like it. “Angry Woman Wants Her House” is a good enough premise, but certainly not enough plot. It was all I could do to keep from skimming after a certain point.

The Characters
The peripheral characters have very little life or personality. I am willing to give (only slight) allowances on this, and here’s why. Elizabeth is clearly psychotic. She has no regard for a single other human being. So, I can see how, through her eyes, other characters could be flat. However, I really needed more. Henry, Elizabeth’s brother in law, has at least some dimension. He has anger, he has emotions, he has a hobby. Gloria really has none of this. She’s a complete dud. She’s boring, simple, lacks any discernible personality. For me, it would have been better had Gloria been an actual person, rather than a symbol of everything Elizabeth has wanted but not obtained.

The Total Lack of Closure
Basically, Elizabeth spends a good portion working on one plan to get what she wants. Then a little bit planning her next scheme. Then? Nothing. I mean. Actually nothing. She messes with her neighbors, spends more time angry. I cannot stress this enough: nothing else happens. There’s no real ending, no closure, no sense of anything having really taken place. This is just incredibly upsetting for me, and ultimately my least favorite part of a novel that showed promise.

*Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for advance access to this book in exchange for an honest review.*

The beloved is an awesome book! The author wrote this with such passion and twist. I want to read it again it was so freaking amazing!

I liked this book.  I read it in one sitting, caught up in Elizabeth's story.  I liked her character.  Her character was very well developed, and her feelings were clear.  I felt like I was in her head.  I know she is not the good girl in this story, but I found myself rooting for her plans to work.  From her point of view, they all made sense.  The relationship between her and her sister and brother-in-law was well written.  I did not like the very end of the book.  Sometimes I think a book needs a clean ending, and I wanted that here.  My final thought was, "what? come on!"

I was engrossed in the twisted mind of the main character.  The portrayal of the narcissistic development was fascinating.  What I did not like about this book was the way it does not end but just stops to leave the reader wondering what will happen.

Pros: Weird, shifting tale
Cons: Weird, shifting tale
Rating: 4 out of 5


Maureen Lindley’s The Beloveds focuses on Elizabeth, who feels mightily aggrieved. As far as she’s concerned her life has always gone wrong. Her younger sister Gloria appropriated both her date Henry (eventually marrying him!) and her bff Alice. Their mother left the family home to Gloria even though Elizabeth is the one who loves the place. She has wars with her neighbors, starts experimenting with poisons, and engages in frankly psychopathic behavior. It’s interesting how many books lately are concentrating on the psychos instead of their victims. It’s an odd change, and one I would have preferred to remain a rare niche rather than become a trend. I prefer main characters who are at least a little sympathetic, and it’s hard to find that in characters like Elizabeth. Lindley tries to make her understandable in some small ways, but for me it wasn’t enough.

There were too many spots where I’d try to imagine what’s coming next in the story and all I’d come up with was “Elizabeth will find yet another way to be a psycho.” It would have been nice to see a bit more coherent plotting than that. That said, without giving anything away I will say I liked the way the tale ended. I thought it was clever and interesting and hinted at more interesting things to come than most of the rest of the story did before it. Okay, so that last bit is also a bit of a minus. It seems like some of the same things that make the book good are also the things that make it not sit entirely well with me.

Still, I do love tales where someone’s devious nature results in plenty of thrilling twists and turns, so I did enjoy reading The Beloveds. Whether you’re likely to enjoy it depends on how sympathetic you want your main character to be.

The Beloved start out as a sibling rivalry gone overboard. When Betty’s mom passes, and her sister is left the house, she will do anything to get it back. This book is a fast read, but went on a little too long.

Wasn't thrilled with the characters.  Seemed whiny instead of what she was meant to be.  Really pushed my way through this. A lot of cursing as well, especially in the second half.

Expected Publication: April 3, 2018

Cleanliness: 15+ curse words. Other topics to consider: extreme hate, rage, disrespect to family, jealousy, cancer, mental health, mention of sex, divorce, drugs, drinking, smoking, stealing, and murder.

3 stars

[Side note:] This book I received is an ARC (advanced reader’s copy), and I am so totally excited. For those of you that don’t know, an ARC book is a copy of an unfinished book given to a small audience for review before the finished book is published. This is my first one to receive, and it just made me so happy! Okay, enough fangirling, on to the review!

This book … wow. This is not for young readers. It is told from the viewpoint of Elizabeth (Betty) Stash. She is an extremely warped character. I would consider her to be a high-functioning psychopath.  She has the personality of a female Sherlock Holmes without a John to save her. Feeling unloved by everyone and everything, she decides to try to make everyone around her hurt, too.

There actually is one love in her life: a house. That house is taken away from her by her “perfect” sister, and that simply makes her more vengeful. I have never EVER read a book about a objectophile before. Her point of view is crazy and so interesting!

This story really shows how obsessions destroy you and your life. It was intriguing, but I won’t recommend it because A. It has an obnoxious amount of cursing. (Mostly in the second half.) B. The ending was lacking. It acts as if it’s set up for a sequel, but you can only talk about murderous tendencies of a person for so long. This book used up all that time.

https://audrasbookblabbing.wordpress.com/2018/01/20/the-beloveds-review/
 ~I was sent a free copy from NetGalley and Gallery Books (Simon & Schuster) for a honest review~

I tried. I really did. The blurb intrigued me and I enjoy a "dark side of family" story as much as the next girl, but I just could NOT get into this one...  There was just nothing to grab me. The family drama didn't feel so much like drama as like whining sibling rivalry. The "sinister" elements alluded to in the description never quite materialized as such - again, it mostly felt like whining. Betty was certainly not a good or nice sister/wife/person; but she never quite made it into full-on evil mode either (at least not by the point that I gave up). She didn't do much of anything. Mostly she just seemed to expend a tremendous amount of energy hating - people, situations, cooking, renovations, life... And after dozens and dozens of pages of that hatred - which never truly erupted but rather just simmered heavily - I just couldn't keep reading.